chimpanzee

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have identified new information about chimpanzee diets and diet-related behaviours, based on the record of plant remains preserved in the dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) on the teeth of deceased individuals. The research team found that the plant remains recovered from the dental calculus record of wild Taï Forest Chimpanzees (Côte d’Ivoire) broadly match the feeding data collected over the past twenty years as part of the Taï Chimpanzee Project. Moreover, the plant remains may provide information on behaviours important in chimpanzee life histories. These life-history traits are otherwise largely invisible in populations where it is impossible to directly observe the individuals.

Chimpanzee males that treat females aggressively father more offspring over time. The findings, in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 13, are based on genetic evidence of paternity and suggest that sexual coercion via long-term intimidation is an adaptive strategy for males in chimpanzee society.

Children and chimpanzees often follow the group when they want to learn something new. But do they actually forego their own preferences in order to fit in with their peers? In direct comparisons between apes and children, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and Jena University has found that the readiness to abandon preferences and conform to others is particularly pronounced in humans – even in two-year-old children. Interestingly, the number of peers presenting an alternative solution appeared to have no influence on whether the children conformed.

The ability to form long-term cooperative relationships between unrelated individuals is one of the main reasons for human’s extraordinary biological success, yet little is known about its evolution and mechanisms. The hormone oxytocin, however, plays a role in it. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, measured the urinary oxytocin levels in wild chimpanzees after food sharing and found them to be elevated in both donor and receiver compared to social feeding events without sharing.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have, for the first time, taken chimpanzee and bonobo skin cells and turned them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a type of cell that has the ability to form any other cell or tissue in the body.

Where do you go when the fruits in your favourite food tree are gone and you don’t know which other tree has produced new fruit yet? An international team of researchers, led by Karline Janmaat from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, studied whether chimpanzees aim their travel to particular rainforest trees to check for fruit and how they increase their chances of discovering bountiful fruit crops.